LePage submits Medicaid plan but urges feds to reject it

Maine’s Republican governor has urged the federal government to reject the proposal that his administration submitted Tuesday to start rolling out Medicaid expansion as demanded by voters.

Maine’s Republican governor has urged the federal government to reject the proposal that his administration submitted Tuesday to start rolling out Medicaid expansion as demanded by voters.

Gov. Paul LePage in an Aug. 31 letter asked President Donald Trump’s administration to quash the proposal because Maine doesn’t know how it’ll cover its share of expansion down the road. Previously, LePage has said he’d rather go to jail than jeopardize Maine’s finances by expanding Medicaid.

The governor in his letter said he accepts that Medicaid expansion is the law. “However, not one dime of the hundreds of millions of dollars that will be needed to pay for the state’s share of expansion has been appropriated,” LePage wrote.

Nearly 3 out of 5 Mainers last November voted to allow adults under age 65 with incomes at or below 138 percent of the federal poverty line to apply for Medicaid coverage starting July 2.

Medicaid expansion could eventually send roughly $500 million in annual federal funding to Maine. But the voter-approved law doesn’t include a way for Maine to pay $54 million to $62 million for its annual share of expansion after projected savings.

To read the rest of “LePage submits Medicaid plan but urges feds to reject it,” an article by Associated Press writer Marina Villeneuve, please follow this link to the BDN online.

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